Acoustophoretic device with uniform fluid flow

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9827511-B2
Application number	US-201514791115-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Jul 2, 2014
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

An acoustophoresis device which includes a substantially vertical flow path of the fluid mixture in order to improve separation of particles/secondary fluid from a primary fluid is disclosed. The vertical flow path reduces velocity non-uniformities in the acoustic chamber resulting from gravity forces. The device includes an acoustic chamber in which multidimensional acoustic standing waves are generated. The fluid can be introduced into the acoustic chamber using a dump diffuser in which a plurality of inlets enter near the bottom of the acoustic chamber such that flow symmetry reduces both, gravity driven flow non-uniformities, and any flow interference effects between inlet mixture flow into the acoustic chamber and the continuous gravity driven particle cluster drop out.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An acoustophoresis device, comprising:
a housing having a sidewall that defines an acoustic chamber;
at least one upper outlet in the acoustic chamber;
a shallow wall leading to at least one lower outlet in the acoustic chamber;
at least one ultrasonic transducer located on the sidewall of the housing;
at least one reflector located on the sidewall of the housing opposite the at least one ultrasonic transducer; and
at least one acoustic chamber inlet above the shallow wall for the inflow of fluid mixture, wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is part of a dump diffuser, the dump diffuser including a plenum with an upper end, a lower end, a chamber with a volume, an inlet flow port at the upper end leading into the chamber, and the at least one acoustic chamber inlet at the lower end.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is located at a height between 5% and 25% of a height of the acoustic chamber.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is in the shape of holes or slots that provide a flow direction normal to the axial direction of an acoustic standing wave generated by the at least one ultrasonic transducer.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the shallow wall has an angle of 60° or less relative to a horizontal plane.

5. The device of claim 1 , having a circular or rectangular cross-section in a flow direction.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is a plurality of inlets located about the housing so that the device has a vertical plane or line of symmetry and the inflow of fluid is symmetrical.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein each inlet in the plurality of acoustic chamber inlets is fed by a different dump diffuser.

8. An acoustophoretic device, comprising:
a housing having a sidewall that defines an acoustic chamber;
at least one upper outlet in the acoustic chamber;
a shallow wall leading to at least one lower outlet in the acoustic chamber;
at least one ultrasonic transducer located on the sidewall of the housing;
at least one reflector located on the sidewall of the housing opposite the at least one ultrasonic transducer; and
at least one acoustic chamber inlet for the inflow of fluid mixture;
wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is located at an upper end of the acoustic chamber along with the at least one upper outlet, and a wall separates the at least one acoustic chamber inlet from the at least one upper outlet such that fluid flows vertically downwards from the at least one acoustic chamber inlet past the at least one ultrasonic transducer, then horizontally, then vertically upwards to the at least one upper outlet.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the wall separating the at least one acoustic chamber inlet from the at least one upper outlet extends vertically downwardly from the upper end of the acoustic chamber.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the wall separating the at least one acoustic chamber inlet from the at least one upper outlet divides the acoustic chamber into first and second flow channels, the first flow channel defined by the wall and the at least one acoustic chamber inlet and the second flow channel defined by the wall and the at least one upper outlet, wherein the cross-sectional areas of the first and second flow channels are substantially equal.

11. The device of claim 8 , wherein the wall separating the at least one acoustic chamber inlet from the at least one upper outlet is spaced apart from the upper end of the acoustic chamber, such that a gap is formed therebetween, the gap acting as a pressure relief passage between the at least one acoustic chamber inlet and the at least one upper outlet.

12. A method of separating a host fluid from a second fluid or particulate, the method comprising
flowing a mixture of the host fluid and the second fluid or particulate through an acoustophoresis device in a uniform fashion, the device comprising:
a housing having a sidewall that defines an acoustic chamber;
at least one upper outlet in the acoustic chamber;
a shallow wall leading to at least one lower outlet in the acoustic chamber;
at least one ultrasonic transducer located on the sidewall of the housing, the transducer including a piezoelectric material driven by a voltage signal to create a multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave in the acoustic chamber;
at least one reflector located on the sidewall of the housing opposite the at least one ultrasonic transducer; and
at least one acoustic chamber inlet in the sidewall above the shallow wall for the inflow of fluid, wherein the at least one acoustic chamber inlet is part of a dump diffuser, the dump diffuser including a plenum with an upper end, a lower end, a chamber with a volume, an inlet flow port at the upper end leading into the chamber, and the at least one acoustic chamber inlet at the lower end;

capturing smaller particles of the second fluid or particulate in the multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave to cluster and continuously gravity separate the second fluid or particulate from the host fluid;
wherein the gravity separated second fluid or particulate subsequently falls into the at least one lower outlet.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the mixture of the host fluid and the second fluid or particulate is a slurry.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the smaller particles in the incoming mixture have particle Reynolds numbers of from about 0.0005 to 1.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the particulate is Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, NS0 hybridoma cells, baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, or human cells.

16. An acoustophoresis device, comprising:
an acoustic chamber;
at least one ultrasonic transducer configured to create a multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave in the acoustic chamber; and
at least one dump diffuser upstream of the acoustic chamber;
wherein the dump diffuser is composed of a plenum, a plenum inlet, and a plenum outlet, wherein fluid flows into the plenum inlet and out of the plenum outlet, and wherein the plenum outlet is fluidly connected to the acoustic chamber.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , where flow pulsations entering the plenum inlet are reduced at the plenum outlet that is fluidly connected to the acoustic chamber.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , where flow non-uniformities entering the plenum inlet are reduced at the plenum outlet that is fluidly connected to the acoustic chamber.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the horizontal fluid velocity decreases at the center of the acoustic chamber.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the acoustophoresis device is coupled with at least one additional filtration process upstream or downstream of the acoustophoresis device.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the at least one additional filtration process is depth filtration, tangential flow filtration, or another physical filtration process.

Assignees

• Flodesign Sonics Inc

Inventors

• Lipkens Bart
• Mccarthy Brian
• Barnes Jason
• Mealey Dane
• Ross-Johnsrud Ben
• Presz Jr Walter M
• Chitale Kedar

Classifications

• B01D21/0045

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• B01D21/283 Primary

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